A/B Testing OutSystems Mobile Apps with Google Optimize
The goal is simple. You have a mobile application built with OutSystems, and you want to check whether a red button or a green button converts better.
The application has two screens and looks like this:

Step 1: Set Up Google Analytics
The first thing to do is configure Google Analytics so you can track your goals and test which of the options has a higher conversion rate.
Create a new account and select “Website.” At the end of the process, you will have a tracking code.

Next, set up a goal. This will measure each variant’s rate of success, and you’ll be able to understand which option is better. For this particular situation, we want people to click the Buy button.

Step 2: Set Up Google Optimize
Next, go to Google Optimize. Create a new account if you don’t have one and add a container. At the end of the process, you’ll have a container ID.

To collect experiment data, link your Optimize account to your Analytics account.

Step 3: Configure the Application
With the basic setup done on Google’s side, we need to set up the application. Start by installing the Google Optimize component from the OutSystems Forge.
Next, add “SetupGoogleOptimize” to OnApplicationReady, “SendPageView” on the OnReady of the Common/Layout block, and “SendEvent” on the button click event. Be sure to use the category, action, and label configured in the Analytics goal.

You can now publish and run the application and make sure the events are being properly tracked. Open the application in a browser and check the real-time reports in Google Analytics.

Step 4: Configure the A/B Test
It’s time to go back to Google Optimize and create the experiment. I called mine “Green Button” and configured the URL for the homepage.

Once that’s done, you can start configuring variants. We’ll just add one called “GreenButton” that will change the color of the button to green.

Next, you configure the objective and the targeting of your experiment. The objective will be the goal set up earlier : clicking the button. On the Targeting tab, change the activation event to “Custom” with an “optimize.activate” value. This is the value the Google Optimize component uses.

And that’s it! You’re ready to go!

Step 5: Get Some Results
You can now start seeing your different variants running. The easiest way to do it is by launching an incognito window and accessing your app’s URL. One of the variants will show. Close all incognito windows, open another incognito window, and you might get the alternative variant (if you don’t, try a couple more times). If all is properly configured, you’ll be able to see both variants.

Google Optimize is now collecting data and managing your experiment. But it will be a while before you can see the results—up to 48 hours. If you’re in a rush, you can always take a peek at the results in Google Analytics while it’s still available!

When your results are finally processed, you get all the information you need about your experiment.

Now that you see how easy it is to do this, you test all kinds of things, such as seeing if a bright orange button has a good conversion rate. Happy testing!